The skills learned in the rail shops made Fort Wayne a tool and die center and also made possible the pump manufacturing businesses of S.F. The Pennsylvania Railroad Shops grew to employ 3,950 workers by 1913.(4)īonsib observed that the railroad shops spawned other businesses such as the Jenny Electric Company (later to become General Electric), which built lights for rail engines and cars, Bass Foundry for rail wheels, frames and other locomotive parts, and safety valve manufacturer, Kunkle Valve. Bonsib’s excellent Quest Club paper on the influence of railroads on Fort Wayne observed that at one time in the mid-1800s Fort Wayne challenged Indianapolis and Chicago for predominance as the rail gateway to the west, ultimately losing out to Chicago.(3) Nevertheless, in the early 1880s, the Pennsylvania Railroad chose Fort Wayne as its sole location for the construction of rail cars because of its central geography and access to lumber from Michigan. This was part of the celebrated “Nickel Plate Road”.(2) John F. The New York, Chicago and Lake Erie Railway purchased the canal right-of-way through downtown Fort Wayne and was able to lay track straight through the heart of the city without razing a single building. River transportation yielded to the Wabash & Erie Canal, which rather quickly succumbed to competition from the railroads. HISTORY OF INDUSTRY IN ALLEN COUNTYįort Wayne, by its location at the confluence of rivers, was an early site of commerce, transportation and manufacturing. The excerpt below is the History portion of the article. David Steiner authored and presented an article titled "Trends in Industry in Allen County" for the Quest Club of Fort Wayne.
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